Selected Poems by Natasha Trethewey |
Selected Poems by Natasha Trethewey
The New York Times
2012-06-06
Poems by Natasha Trethewey, the newly named poet laureate.
…PASTORAL
In the dream, I am with the Fugitive
Poets. We’re gathered for a photograph.
Behind us, the skyline of Atlanta
hidden by the photographer’s backdrop —
a lush pasture, green, full of soft-eyed cows
lowing, a chant that sounds like no, no. Yes,
I say to the glass of bourbon I’m offered.
We’re lining up now — Robert Penn Warren,
his voice just audible above the drone
of bulldozers, telling us where to stand.
Say “race,” the photographer croons. I’m in
blackface again when the flash freezes us.
My father’s white, I tell them, and rural.
You don’t hate the South? they ask. You don’t hate it?
Read the poems here.
Tags: Natasha Trethewey, New York Times, The New York Times